The San Antonio Spurs travel to The Big Easy to face the New Orleans Pelicans at Smoothie King Center on Wednesday.

The Spurs (19-23) have had a nightmare schedule recently but some of their wins are telling. In fact, San Antonio's last five wins have come against the Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns and Miami Heat. That's quite the gauntlet and it's clear that San Antonio is out of their early-season swoon with wins like those in their back pocket. That means easier games are right around the corner and it's a great sign that the Spurs got out all of those tough Eastern Conference games early in the season. The thing that's hard to understand is their defense. The Spurs currently sit 26th in points allowed and that's a shocking statistic from an organization that usually sets their foundation based on defensive play. That's something that needs to improve, particularly in a matchup against one of the most talented offenses in the NBA.

The Pelicans (17-27) had one of the worst records in the NBA about a month ago but recent results have this looking like the team we expected to see all season long. In fact, New Orleans comes into this matchup winning 10 of their last 14 games. What makes that even scarier is the fact that Jrue Holiday just returned from injury in their last outing to drop 36 points and that Zion Williamson is expected to make his NBA debut here. The top-pick from last year's draft has all the talent in the world and it'll be fascinating to see how he gels with guys like Holiday and Brandon Ingram. Another big step is to get the defense to match their offensive capabilities, with the Pelicans sitting 29th in points allowed. That won't get them into the postseason but this talent is plenty capable of getting them there in a wide-open Western Conference.

This is the first meeting between these teams this season, with San Antonio winning the season series last year, 3-1.